When serving food, such as at a buffet or salad bar, various implements or serving utensils for handling food are utilized to grasp or collect a portion of food and prevent the hand of a user from coming into contact with and contaminating the food being served. Furthermore, although traditional serving utensils should prevent the food from being contaminated by dirty hands, more often than not the serving utensils are often placed by the user inside the serving container on top of the food causing the serving utensils to become covered with the food in the serving container. As a result, any dirt, germs, bacteria, etc. transferred onto the serving utensils by the hands of the user, or by any other means, contaminates the food in the serving container.
Additionally, with conventional serving utensils, there is no protection against the hand of a user becoming immersed in the contents of the serving container while the user is grasping or collecting the food in the serving container. As a result, any dirt, germs, bacteria, etc. on the hand of the user may be transferred directly to the contents of the serving container. Furthermore, the hand of the user becomes soiled with the contents of the serving container.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed are serving utensils that avoid these drawbacks and have a guard or shield which prevents the hand of a user from becoming soiled, as well as prevents the hand of the user from contaminating the contents of the serving container.